


Ocean Lover

by PurrfectCatastrophe



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, I shouldn't have posted this, I'm so sorry, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-25
Updated: 2014-03-25
Packaged: 2018-01-16 23:20:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1365427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurrfectCatastrophe/pseuds/PurrfectCatastrophe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haruka is rescued by a very cute merman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ocean Lover

**Author's Note:**

> So I had this idea on my mind for a while but never wrote anything for it. Like I tried and failed like 10 times then randomly last night I was like "Oh I can go this route" and I did. I kinda rushed around the end so I'm super sorry but if I didn't post this now I would have never but the idea was really fuckin cute and I couldn't pass up the chance to write for it
> 
> Little to no editing done. I'll just have to do that later.

Haruka didn’t have many friends. In fact he only had 3 and one of them wasn’t even human.

It’s kind of embarrassing for Haruka to retell how they met. Two young boy brought together by Haruka’s recklessness. Perhaps it’s best to start at the beginning. Haruka loved water for a long as he could remember and Swimming even more than water. Since his grandmother lived near the ocean Haruka spent more time there than at his own home. It got to the point where his parents allowed him to just live there. That way Haruka could swim as much as he wanted and someone was there to help out Grandmother Nanase. It was like a dear come true for both of them.

Every day Haruka would rush home to haphazardly finish his homework, patiently check on his grandmother, and slightly rush through his chores so he could get to the ocean quicker. The section of beach that his grandmother’s home overlooked was very rocky. Tide pools of varying sizes were dotted all around the area. It was considered dangerous but only for parents with kids who actually cared about climbing rocks and touching dangerous aquatic life. Haruka had much bigger things on his mind.

It was almost as if he was cursed. A boy more suited for the ocean forced to live on dry land. He could swim and stay underwater all he wanted but he’d never truly get what he desired. At this moment what his lungs desired was air. Just how long had he been under? Expertly turning around Haruka began to swim up to the surface. Slowly he realized that it was taking a while to breach the surface. Haruka was so lost in swimming he hadn’t realized just how far down he had swum. Trying to keep his cool Haruka focused on swimming and only that. Ignore the pain. Ignore the fatigue. Ignore how pointless this seemed. Just Swim.

As his brain forced him to take in air Haruka realized it was too late. He accidently sucked in a gulp of water before closing his mouth again. Haruka watched as the bubbles that he made floated around him. They looked beautiful considering they were the signs of his slow death. Suddenly his body felt hot as if a fire was lit inside of him. It was uncomfortable border line unbearable. That’s when the edges of his vision began to fade slowly and Haruka realized he was only passing out. The last thing he remembered was a vibrant purple and arms wrapping around his torso. 

_You can’t stay like this._  
Grandma will worry.  
It’s imperative to get home.  
 _**Wake up!** _

Haruka forced his open surprised to find himself back on the beach instead of wherever you go when you die. He suddenly lurched over onto his side and puked out the water he had swallowed. Coughing harshly Haruka tried to figure out how he managed to live. 

“I’m breaking so many rules right now. I hope no one saw what I did. Really I should have left after I pulled him out but I just had to make sure he was still alive. Oh gosh what he is actually dead? He hasn’t really moved in a while…” A voice rambled over quietly off to the side. 

Full sitting up Haruka saw a boy around his age sitting in one of the larger tide pools. Haruka shakily pushed himself up and sighed heavily at how hard this was. He realized he wasn’t going to be able to walk so he crawled over to the boy instead. He propped himself up on the rock and made his presence known.

“I’m not dead so you can calm down.” Haruka said causing the boy to jump. Suddenly Haruka was slapped in the face with something wet and he fell to the ground with a pained noise. Haruka clutched at his face and pulled away realizing that only made the sting worse. The boy gasped at what he had down and moved to help Haruka up.

“I’m so sorry are you okay? I didn’t mean to hit you! You startled me!” The boy babbled his purple eyes wide with worry.

“What hit me?” Haruka asked as he sat up. The boy blushed and pulled his hovering hands away. He fidgeted slightly before slowly revealing his purple tail. Haruka stared in shock before he scrambled to get a closer look. Sure enough where legs should have been was a beautiful purple tail. 

“Promise you won’t tell anyone about me?” The boy begged. 

“I promise besides you saved my life so that’s the least I could do.” Haruka answered. For the first time Haruka actually studied the boy. His hair was a navy blue color and his eyes were the same color as his tail. The difference was that his tail seemed to glimmer with different colors of the rainbow. The kid was obviously nervous about being on land and was continuously looking around. It was at this point Haruka realized he wanted to know more about this kid.

“Hey what’s your name?” Haruka asked.

“Ryuugazaki Rei.”

“Nanase Haruka. Will I see you again?” 

“There is a possibility.” Rei replied before turning around and diving back into the ocean. Haruka watched in slight awe as Rei swam away.

So he might interested in the boy who accidentally slapped him across the face.

\--

Surprisingly enough Haruka did see Rei again. An entire month later that is. Haruka had actually expected to never see the boy again. What were the chances that he’d break the rules twice just to chat with him? There was still a glimmer of hope that Rei would show up again. It had just about died out when Rei did show himself again.

Haruka had been floating on his back looking at the sky when someone flipped him over. If he wasn’t so at home in the water he might have panicked. Instead he opened his eyes to see familiar purple eyes staring at him. Rei smiled shyly at Haruka before swimming up to the surface. Haruka followed with a strange feeling of excitement filling up in him.

“I didn’t think you’d show up again.” Haruka admitted once he was above the water.

“I almost didn’t but you seemed nice enough so I decided to take the risk.” Rei answered truthfully as he pulled himself into a tide pool. Haruka followed him and sat on the edge.

“My amazing personality surely isn’t why you came back.” Haruka huffed.

“I’m not sure why I returned actually but I’m sure we’ll find a reason.” Rei answered. 

So they did. Despite not talking much Haruka was actually great company. The two would often race which more often than not ended with Rei as the winner. Rei would complain that it wasn’t a fair race but Haruka didn’t care. Just the fact he could keep up with a merman meant something. If they weren’t swimming they were talking about their different worlds. Rei explained how sea life was. As it turned out Rei was actually a purple masked angelfish. Many merpeople were actually part dolphin, shark, beta, etc. Haruka would bring his school books for Rei to read. Rei enjoyed reading about animals the most. 

Soon enough the two realized their original thoughts about the other were dead wrong. Haruka realized that Rei was easily excitable and a huge nerd. After the fifth time meeting Rei managed to get comfortable enough to show his true colors. Not only that but he spoke his mind and had no trouble calling out Haruka’s rough behavior. Rei found that Haruka wasn’t all the emotionless and cold. Even if he didn’t talk much or show interest in anything Haruka was actually a great listener and very observant.

Without realizing it they started to depend on each other. Rei was who Haruka went to when his grandmother passed. Rei had pulled the boy close and hugged him as Haruka clutched onto Rei as if his life depended on it. Haruka had fallen asleep in Rei’s arms that day and Rei felt oddly comforted by this. When Rei’s vision started to get slightly blurry Haruka was the one who faked poor vision to get Rei prescription glasses. 

Both fell in love and hadn’t even noticed.

\--

“How many different butterflies are there?” Rei asked as he flipped through a book of Butterfly species. 

“I don’t know maybe like 10,000 or something.” Haruka answered.

“I wish I could study them they look so beautiful. I’ve seen them before when they sometimes fly above the ocean but I can never watch them for too long.” Rei said sadly. He stopped at a picture of a Blue Morpho butterfly and held it up for Haruka to see. Haruka didn’t respond to this instead pretending like he hadn’t noticed the action. Rei had been saying similar things as of late. For the past month it had been nothing but constant talk about what he’d do if he could live on dry land. Honestly it pissed Haruka off. It was stupid to be mad but he couldn’t help the annoyance he felt whenever Rei talked about living on land as if it was so amazing. As far as Haruka could tell there was nothing nice about living on land. 

“Haruka-kun is there something wrong?” Rei asked as he set the book down to pull himself closer to his friend. Haruka closed his eyes in an attempt to calm down. If he spoke now surely he’d say something awful. Normally he had a good grip on his emotions but lately it got harder to just sit there and listen to Rei’s gushing.

“Haruka?”

“Everything is fine just go back to your book.” Haruka snapped. Shit. Now there was no turning back.

“If something is wrong please tell me it’s not good to hold things in.” Rei pushed. Haruka silently pleaded with Rei to not push the issue. To just drop it, allow him to calm down, and stop being so damn childish. 

“If I talked about living in water like you talk about living on land you probably wouldn’t be all that happy either.” Haruka muttered. Rei sat back confused and very hurt. Sure he’s been told that his love for land was weird but hearing that from Haruka hurt more than he thought it would. 

“I- I’m sorry. I should go.” Rei whispered as he fought back the urge to cry. Haruka turned to his friend unprepared for just how he hurt he looked. Haruka felt his heart sink at this and the weight of his words finally hit him. Rei didn’t give Haruka a chance to talk before turning to retreat back into the ocean. Haruka fell back onto the sand he pressed his hands over his eyes cursing his stupidity. He thought about going after Rei but he was more than likely already long gone by now plus it was dark out.

Getting up Haruka picked up the abandoned book and dragged himself back home. He didn’t even bother with soaking in the tub too angry at himself for snapping at Rei like that. He set the book down on his desk and crawled into bed. Haruka would apologize the first chance he got.

\--

As Haruka expected Rei wasn’t there the next day. Either Haruka had hurt him badly or Rei thought Haruka needed space. Haruka waited until the sun set before going home. It felt weird going a day without talking with Rei. It was a tough pill to swallow but Haruka was lonely. Instead of going straight home Haruka walked to a nearby craft shop. He grabbed a basket and began filling it with items. At the checkout the lady eyed all of the items with a knowing smile and checked him out.

Once at home Haruka cleared off his table and set his newly bought items down. A necklace chain, a hot glue gun, wire, and blue glass. First Haruka shaped the wire into the shape of a butterfly before hot gluing it together. While the glue dried Haruka wrapped the blue glass in a tower and broke it in a box. He then took the glass shards and filled the wire butterfly with it until it was fully blue. He then spread the hot glue over the shards sealing them together. Using the left over wire he made a loop to attach the chain on and held up his finished work. 

“I hope this will help.” Haruka whispers as he promptly falls asleep at the table. 

\--

Haruka arrived early the next day. He sat at Rei’s favorite tide pool waiting for the merman to return. He watched the water intently looking for any movement. It was so subtle he almost missed the flash of blue out of the side of his eye. Rolling his eyes Haruka walked over the large rock near him.

“Rei I know you’re there you can come out.”  
Rei peeks out from behind the rock and climbs on top of it. The two awkwardly stare at each other before breaking the silence at the same time.

“Do you still hate me?”

“I’m an idiot please don’t hate me.”

Oh.

“No I never hated you if anything I hate myself for letting my emotions get the best of me.”

“But I upset you with my constant talk about living on land and that was rude of me.”

“Look you didn’t do anything wrong. I just. Here take this.” Haruka huffed as he held up the necklace he made. Talking wasn’t really his strong point. Haruka was more of an actions type person.

“Did you make this?” Rei gasps as he takes the butterfly in his hands. Haruka nods and explains that it’s an apology gift for being an ass. Rei smiles brightly and pulls Haruka in for a kiss. The two let their bodies do the talking kiss out their unsaid feelings. All of their passion and love went into that one kiss. When they pulled away they were both flushed and breathing heavily.

“A thank you would have sufficed but that was ten times better.” Haruka whispers breathlessly. Rei chuckles at this and rests their foreheads together.

Haruka is sure now that he’s found something he loves more than the ocean itself.


End file.
